


as we promised it would be

by izayoi_no_mikoto



Category: DRAMAtical Murder (Visual Novel)
Genre: Allmate Ren - Freeform, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fix-It of Sorts, M/M, Nonnies Made Me Do It, alternate True Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-02
Updated: 2017-12-02
Packaged: 2019-02-09 13:53:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12889293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/izayoi_no_mikoto/pseuds/izayoi_no_mikoto
Summary: Aoba wakes up amidst the ruins of Platinum Jail and discovers that everyone's there with him--everyone except his Allmate.Or:What if Ren had stayed Ren?





	as we promised it would be

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: This fic hews to the True Ending until it really, really doesn't.

Clear stood by wringing his hands fretfully; Koujaku helped him sit up.  But even when they spoke, Aoba couldn't hear them.  All he could do was stare up, up, up, his jaw agape and his mind frozen with shock.  
  
The elegant, intimidating tower that had once stood as the glorious symbol of Platinum Jail now stood shattered.  
  
The once-sweeping arcs were jagged now, smoking shards of metal slashing the azure sky.  Beneath it, all around them, lay ruins, the nearby buildings collateral damage, the street littered with crumbling fragments.  Even as Aoba watched, a sliver of steel surrendered to gravity and snapped off to tumble, spinning and glinting, to the ground.  
  
"The tower," Aoba whispered.  
  
All around him, people ran, cried, shouted.  A woman stumbled by, one arm drenched in blood.  Nearby, two men argued, one gesticulating wildly, the other with his arms crossed, both wearing the same tense, furrow-browed expression of terror just barely held at bay.  Somewhere in the distance, a girl's voice screamed, wordlessly, endlessly.  But even in the middle of the chaos, Aoba was encircled by a bubble of calm.  Everyone else was there--Koujaku, Clear, Noiz, even Mink--all of them quiet, collected, above the panic engulfing the rest of the world.  
  
Aoba's eyes flickered over them, one by one, and then he exhaled, slowly, shakily.  Everyone was here.  Everyone was okay.  Everyone--  
  
_I'll always be by your side,_ a voice murmured deep in Aoba's memory, and his eyes went wide.  
  
Where was Ren?  
  
Aoba looked this way and that, his head on a swivel.  Ren wasn't curled up in Aoba's lap.  Koujaku didn't have him.  Neither did Clear.  He wasn't sitting nearby.  
  
Ren wasn't anywhere to be seen.  
  
"Ren," Aoba said blankly, his heart racing, his throat suddenly dry.  "Where's Ren?"  
  
Koujaku and Clear glanced at each other.  Noiz stared into the distance at nothing.  Mink turned his back.  No one spoke.  
  
Aoba turned toward Koujaku, grabbed him by the arm and gave him a rough shake.  "Koujaku," he said, and hated the way his voice quavered, " _where is Ren_?"  
  
Koujaku hesitated, his eyes cutting away.  He licked his lips, swallowed.  "I don't know," he said gruffly.  "We couldn't find him.  He wasn't with you."  
  
Aoba's heart hitched, faltered, and collapsed.  
  
_I'll always be by your side._  
  
Aoba pushed Koujaku away and hauled himself to his feet.  
  
"Aoba--"  
  
"Master!"  
  
He stumbled, nearly slammed face-first into a broken slab of concrete, just barely caught himself.  He knocked away their hands as they tried to help.  _Ren_ , he thought, and staggered blindly away.  
  
They didn't try to stop him.  
  
Ren had to be somewhere around here, and so Aoba searched.  He wandered through the chaos, his eyes constantly scanning the cracked concrete, his feet kicking aside shards of glass, his hands shoving aside rubble, his throat going hoarse as he shouted Ren's name again and again.  Time warped, seconds expanding to fill hours, then minutes vanishing into nothingness.  _Ren_ , he thought desperately, _you said you'd always be with me, you said you'd stay with me, you **said** \--_  
  
And then he caught a glimpse of a dark blue tuft of fur.  
  
"Ren!" Aoba shouted.  No conscious thought, no time to fear the worst--he leapt forward, dropped to his knees, and began digging frantically through the debris, hands scrambling for purchase, his vision blurring--  
  
Ren.  Ren.  _It was Ren_.  
  
The Allmate lay sprawled on his side, his fur a dirty, knotted mess, his fluffy tail curled at an awkward angle, his eyes closed.  With a lump in his throat, Aoba picked him up with trembling hands.  "Ren," he whispered, almost pleading, and tucked Ren into the crook of his arm.  
  
A faint whirring sound, so faint Aoba barely heard it, and then Ren opened his eyes.  
  
The sheer relief was staggering.  Aoba gasped for air, suddenly light-headed.  "Ren," he whispered, his voice thick with emotion.  
  
Ren blinked.  His dark eyes focused.  For a moment there was silence, and then he said, in that voice that rumbled deep in his chest, "Aoba."  
  
Aoba choked up on nothing and cradled Ren close, his fingers digging into matted fur.  "Ren," he said, "I thought I wouldn't find you, I thought you were gone, I thought--"  
  
_I thought I'd lost you._  
  
"I apologize," Ren replied.  "I didn't mean to worry you."  He bumped his head into the underside of Aoba's chin, reared up to place one paw on his shoulder, and licked a tear off his cheek.  "But I told you I would always be by your side," Ren said.  "That will never change."  
  
Aoba's heart swelled.  "Ren," he said, overwhelmed, and gently pressed their foreheads together.  
  
"Aoba," Ren murmured back, his voice soft and deep and so full of love that Aoba wanted to cry, and he closed his eyes.

**Author's Note:**

> (Inspired by the prompt: 100 words of canon-divergent AU)


End file.
